


Little White Lie

by Brumeier



Series: Bite Sized Fic [102]
Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Kid Fic, Loss of Parent(s), M/M, Parent-Child Relationship, Prompt Fill
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-02
Updated: 2016-08-02
Packaged: 2018-07-28 23:59:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,230
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7662229
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Brumeier/pseuds/Brumeier
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>LJ Comment Fic for Name Meanings prompt: <i>author's choice, author's choice,</i></p><p>
  <i>There is so much I don’t remember</i>
  <br/>
  <i>More I’ll never know</i>
  <br/>
  <i>But I have her name</i>
  <br/>
  <i>And her mitochondrial DNA</i>
  <br/>
  <i>And I know she loved me so</i>
</p><p>In which AJ wants to know about his mother, and Rodney can't tell him the whole truth.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Little White Lie

When AJ was six years old he came to Rodney with the question Rodney had been dreading. It didn’t matter how long he’d had to think about it, and come up with a plausible story; it still took him by surprise.

“Poppa, why don’t I have a mommy?”

It was a testament to the open-minded, tolerant environment that they’d created in Atlantis that the question hadn’t come up sooner. AJ wasn’t the only kid that had same-sex parents.

“Let’s sit down,” Rodney said. He dropped down on the couch, and AJ climbed into his lap, a familiar weight that Rodney would never get tired of.

“Torren says babies come from mommies.”

Of course it was Torren, who felt the need to educate all the younger kids in the city about things better left to their parents to explain. Rodney was going to have to speak to Teyla about it, which he absolutely wasn’t looking forward to.

“That’s true,” he said grudgingly. Although they had recently found a lab that appeared to serve as some sort of test tube baby-making facility. “But that doesn’t mean the mommies and daddies live together.” 

“So I _do_ have a mommy?” 

AJ looked up at him with those big blue eyes, and Rodney knew he couldn’t tell his son the whole truth about his conception and birth, and rescue from Claria’s clutches. Hell, Rodney didn’t even know AJ's mother's name, which was setting a bad example he hoped wouldn’t come back to bite him in the ass when AJ was a teenager.

“Of course you do.”

“She never comes to see me.”

Rodney took a deep breath. “She can’t come to see you. She died when you were just a baby.”

“Oh.” AJ knew what that meant. Pegasus was a little safer these days, but there were still plenty of ways to die. He’d attended his first funeral when he was four, and had pestered John and Rodney with questions for a week until he understood what it meant when they said Major Elkins wasn’t coming back, ever. AJ had been particularly clinging in the days following that unfortunate revelation, and Rodney had to promise countless times that he and John weren’t going anywhere.

“She was really beautiful,” Rodney said, and that at least had some basis in a mostly-drunken memory. “She had blonde hair just like you, and a really pretty laugh that sounded like music.”

“She did?”

“And she was very brave. She was kidnapped when she was still pregnant with you, by some really bad people. She fought them, so they wouldn’t take you away, or hurt you.”

That was definitely an embellishment. They’d never really know what happened to AJ’s mother, just that she’d died in childbirth. Or so Claria said. Sometimes Rodney wondered if she was still out there somewhere, and if she’d pop up someday to reclaim what was hers. He tugged AJ a little closer.

“Why didn’t Daddy rescue her?” AJ asked, curious. He snuggled up against Rodney, both arms around him. “No-one left behind.”

Rodney’s throat got a little tight at the blind faith AJ had in his father. “Daddy would have. We both would have. But we didn’t know what happened until it was too late. We got there in time to rescue you, though.”

“You rescued _me_?”

“We sure did. And Aunt Teyla and Uncle Ronon and Colonel Lorne. We all went there to stop the bad lady and bring you back home.”

Rodney’s life had changed forever that day, the day he became a father. He’d never regretted a moment of it.

“Is the bad lady coming back?” AJ asked a little fearfully.

“No, I promise she’s not.” That, at least, Rodney knew for sure. Claria hadn’t taken well to being held captive. They’d kept her at the Alpha site, which she probably saw as a slap in the face; even as a prisoner she wasn’t allowed to step foot in Atlantis. She’d almost escaped, had almost slipped away. Almost.

“Did my mommy love me?”

“She loved you so much. Just as much as Daddy and I do. And she’d be very proud of what a good boy you are, and how well you’re doing in school.” Rodney dropped a kiss on the top of AJ’s head.

“What’s her name?”

Rodney winced. Name? Shit. He was a genius, surely he could come up with something as simple as a name. 

“Gabrielle! I mean, that was her name. It was Gabrielle.”

“That’s a pretty name,” AJ said approvingly. He was taking the whole conversation remarkably well, and Rodney supposed he’d just wanted to know that at some point he’d had a mother, and she hadn’t abandoned him.

He let out a relieved breath. “Do you have any more questions you want to ask about her?” He silently hoped the conversation was over.

“No, Poppa. Can I go play?”

“Of course.”

Rodney let AJ wriggle out of his lap, and then AJ tugged him down so he could lay a big, wet, smacking kiss on Rodney’s cheek before he ran off to his room. “Thanks for rescuing me!” he called over his shoulder.

When John came to bed that night, after having read AJ a story, he favored Rodney with one of his smirkiest grins.

“What?” Rodney asked, setting aside his data pad.

“Gabrielle?”

He flushed. “Oh. He told you about that?”

“I heard the whole heroic story. That was a nice thing to do.” John tugged Rodney close, and kissed him. “I had no idea you were such a good storyteller.”

“Well, it’s not like anyone is going to dispute it. Why not give him a nice story? Beats the shitty reality we both had.”

“True.” John curled up close, throwing his leg over Rodney’s.

“Unless you think it might be emotionally scarring for him down the road if he does find out the truth. Oh, no. Do you think it will be?”

“Rodney.” John put a hand on Rodney’s chest. “Calm down. He’ll be fine. He’s only six. He doesn’t need the whole truth. Although someday he should know what a badass you were.”

Rodney took a deep breath. John was right. He didn’t screw things up. He’d never realized how much of parenting involved second-guessing choices and trying not to mess his kid up.

“That isn’t what you called me at the time,” Rodney reminded him with a grin.

“Yeah, well. The passage of time and all that.” John rubbed circles on Rodney’s chest, thumbing his nipples through his t-shirt. Rodney let his own hand drift to John’s hairy thigh.

“All’s well that ends well?” he quipped.

“Don’t push it. So why Gabrielle?”

“Oh, uh…”

“Come on, McKay. Spill it.”

“The first name that came to mind was Xena,” Rodney admitted with a blush. He had to endure a full two minutes of donkey laughter before John could speak again.

“You always did like blondes.”

“Yeah, well. These days I prefer brunettes.” 

Rodney’s hand moved higher and John choked on his next laugh. And then he kissed Rodney, hot and wet, and the subject of AJ’s mother was momentarily forgotten.

Until the following day, when AJ told everyone he passed in the hall about his brave, dead mother and Rodney was forced to send out a city-wide email to get everyone up to speed on, and thereby complicit in, his little white lie.


End file.
